Warriors Rally to Clip Golden Eagles

by BRANDON PETERSEN

The Westcliff softball team erased a six-run deficit Tuesday afternoon at the Great Park in the first of a doubleheader against La Sierra, taking the win with a Becky Ramos walk-off double, 9-8.

Celeste Huffman set up Ramos with a ringing double to lead-off the bottom of the seventh.

Huffman finished 2-for-3 with the winning-run scored and three RBI.

"Celly came up and roped one down the third base line," Westcliff head coach Vanessa Kellems said. "Celly was hot all day, she's been feeling it. She had two hits today that came up a little shy of going over the fence. She was due and she came up with the perfect clutch hit.

"And Becky, she was seeing the ball well today, hitting hard line drives off the bat. It was perfect timing on both their parts."

The Warriors found themselves down 8-2 after a sloppy first three innings allowed La Sierra to build a comfortable advantage.

But Westcliff made it 8-3 in the third when Huffman scored Mackenzie Melzer on a sacrifice fly, then tied it up in the fourth with a 5-run inning.

First, Jenna Ruiz scored on a Lauren Coppla groundout to second, then Gabby Clippinger came up with a huge two-run single to left that scored Natalie Zeigler and Kassandra Ramos to make it 8-6.

That's when Huffman delivered the big knock, a two-run triple off the wall in deep right center that scored both Clippinger and Desarae Moreno.

"It was a great game, I'm really proud of how we came back," Kellems said. "They kept fighting after we had some mental mistakes early. They were able to shake it off and we're proud they were able to do that.

"We told them it would come down to the seventh, and we would come back to make it happen. And that's just what happened."

Nina Hendriks picked up the win in relief. 

In the second game, the Warriors (14-7 Cal Pac) were leading the Eagles in the top of the sixth, 8-6, as of press time.

Westcliff will travel to Redding for a four-game series with Simpson starting Thursday.

To contact Brandon Petersen, e-mail brandonpetersen@westcliff.edu.